For those who don’t have much experience with marketing or advertising their small business, having a smaller audience that you’re trying to reach can actually be a real benefit to you. However, marketing to a small group, especially if it’s just the residents of a small town, can still bring about its own challenges. So to help ensure that your efforts aren’t done in vain, here are three tips for advertising your business in a small town.
Know What Your Brand Is, And What It Isn’t
If you’re worried about advertising in a small town, you might find yourself focusing too much on the wrong things. According to Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival.com, you don’t really need to spend a lot of time focusing on your logos or your slogans. What’s going to speak louder to your customer base is what values can be associated with your business. If you’re well perceived in your community, your brand will build itself and create its own valuable image for you. This is what you should be striving for and spending your time to achieve.
Never Underestimate Word-Of-Mouth
A form of marketing that you don’t necessarily have a lot of control over but that is nonetheless very important is that of word-of-mouth. Although you can’t know exactly what people will say about you, Danny Wajcman, a contributor to Forbes.com, advises that you try to always run your business so that no customers will have bad experiences to share about your business. Especially in a small town, news can travel fast. So if you work your hardest to get as many word-of-mouth referrals, either by asking for them or offering incentives, you’ll find that good news about your business can spread quickly.
Use Social Media To Your Advantage
To keep in contact with your customers and help build up a community around your business, you may want to take advantage of all that social media has to offer. According to Becky McCray, a contributor to SmallBusiness.com, using social media can not only help you advertise to your local community, but it can also make it easier for you to branch out to other surrounding areas if that’s something you’re interested in. Because social media is a global platform, it can help you reach people that may fall in love with your business but not actually be close enough to take advantage of your products or services. This gives you an avenue to open yourself up to more possibilities when the time is right.
If you’re looking for better ways to advertise your local business to your small town, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you do just that.
